As it is generally known, instant messaging systems are software applications that enable the exchange of messages in a real-time communication session between two or more people over a communication network such as the Internet. Instant messaging is a synchronous communication technology, requiring all participants in a communication session to be logged onto their instant messaging service during the session. Also referred to as “chatting,” instant messaging has become very popular for both business and personal use.
Instant messaging systems maintain and distribute the on-line status of users. Instant messaging client programs automatically set and/or enable users to set their on-line status to indicate that they are currently available for an instant messaging session (“on-line”, “available”, etc.), or that they are not currently available for an instant messaging session (“away from desk”, “do not disturb”, etc.). When a user has indicated that they are available for an instant messaging session, other users are informed of that user's availability, and thus understand that they can initiate an instant messaging session with that user. When an instant messaging session is initiated by an initiating user with a target user, the target user receives a notification, the specific type of which depends on the target user's preferences. One common type of notification is the generation of a pop-up dialog window generated immediately in the user interface of the target user.
In existing systems, because of the synchronous nature of instant messaging, when an instant messaging session is initiated, the target user is interrupted. At the time a session is initiated, the target user is often working on something else, but the newly generated instant messaging session window in the user interface requires the complete attention of the target user. The target user must accordingly immediately change contexts, and start thinking about something completely different from what they were working on.
A related problem is the habit many users have of initiating an instant messaging session with an initial message that includes little or no meaningful content. For example, many initial instant messaging session messages include only insignificant text consisting of “Hi”, “Hello”, “Are you there?”, “Do you have a minute?”, or the like. In these situations the target user is interrupted, and may be blocked from continuing with their work. The target user cannot continue with their real work, but cannot substantively respond to the instant messaging session initiator (other than by responding with more insignificant text, such as “Hi”, “What's up?”, etc.), since they don't know what the initiator of the session wants. The resulting delay before substantive communication can begin takes significant time, especially if the initiating user still needs to type in a whole paragraph of text for their first question after the target user responds to the initial insignificant message.
Another problem with existing systems arises when an instant messaging session is terminated. When a local user terminates a session, they often will enter a final, closing message including a relatively short term, expression and/or acronym used to express farewell such as “bye”, “see ya”, “ttyl” (“talk to you later”), “bfn” (“bye for now”), “thx” (“thanks”), or the like, and then immediately close the user interface window through which the session has been provided to them on their local client computer system. At this time, the user that terminated the session in this way typically desires to immediately turn their attention to another task. However, in existing systems, when one of the other participants in the just terminated instant messaging session sends a farewell message back to the local user, the local user's client computer system generates a visual alert to the local user indicating receipt of the farewell message. As a result, the local user must take an action in response to the alert, such as again closing an instant messaging session window. This series of events delays the local user from promptly turning their attention to a new task or resuming a task they were previously performing.
Given that instant messaging will continue to be used in many contexts, and that it will continue to cause interruptions of target users when instant messaging sessions are initiated, and delay users from turning their attention to other tasks when instant messaging sessions are terminated, it would be desirable to have a new system that minimizes the unnecessary time taken up during the initiation of a new instant messaging session resulting from the use of initial messages that lack significant content, and during the termination of an instant messaging session while insignificant farewell messages are exchanged.